Dolan Endorses Ban On High-Capacity Gun Clips

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan spoke out Friday in support of federal legislation that would ban ammunition magazines that hold a large number of bullets.

The high-capacity magazines have been used in mass shootings, including the recent Tucson, Ariz., shooting that left six dead and 13 injured. In that incident, authorities say suspect Jared Loughner was carrying extended magazines that hold 30 rounds of ammunition.

“Law enforcement should not be outgunned by criminals: it’s just common sense,” Dolan said Friday in a prepared statement.

If passed, the ban would prohibit the sale or transfer of any magazine that holds more than 10 rounds. It would be legal to keep magazines bought before the ban’s start date.

Dolan is the first police chief in the Midwest to publicly support the ban, which was endorsed earlier by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, and other law enforcement, city officials and groups against gun violence, according to the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City.

Dolan said the ban would make streets safer and protect police. He called on Congress to pass the bill authored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., whose husband was killed and son seriously wounded in a 1993 shooting.

High-capacity ammunition magazines were banned by in 1994, but Congress didn’t renew the ban when it expired in 2004. Since then, such magazines have been used in several mass shootings, including the Virginia Tech slayings in 2007 that left 33 dead and the 2009 attack at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13.

High-capacity magazines are legal in Minnesota.

“There’s no reason any civilian needs 30-plus rounds of ammunition: police officers shouldn’t have to confront that much firepower, it’s not fair,” said Richard Aborn, President of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City.

The National Rifle Association has said it would try to block the law, and that citizens should have access to high-capacity magazines to protect themselves from attacks by armed mobs.

Dolan also appeared at an event Friday sponsored by the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns as part of their national tour to promote legislation tightening the federal background check system.

One Comment

Tim Dolan doesn’t care that his department can’t (or won’t) enforce the law!!! He is more worried about preventing law-abiding citizens from defending themselves!!! Do you think the criminals will abide by the ban? NO!!! They’re already criminals! Why would they care? Stay in the suburbs where it is still safe and legal to bear arms as our Founding Fathers intended.

Not fair? Ever notice what a police officer carries. Baton, 9mm or bigger pistol, taser, pepper spray and a shotgun in the car. SWAT teams are even more heavily armed. Even with a high capacity clip the cops have the advantage against a civilian.

Definitely buying more high capacity clips before the ban goes into effect.

Maybe if Virginia Tech had authorized conceal carry on its campus its students wouldn’t have been targets for a killer who didn’t care that Virginia Tech was a gun free campus.

we wanna outgun police officers because they can’t be trusted to serve and protect “we the people”,and if and when the SHTF with the economy going into the toilet,and police states are installed ,and they take orders from the FEDS ,YOU will be very happy the citizens are armed to the teeth,perhaps saving you and your families from being thrown into the FEMA camps,huh?

Good Question: Do you think the Virginia Tech shooter used high capacity magazines because the ban on them had expired? He’s deliberately going to murder innocent people and he is considering weather or not his weapon, ammunition, and magazine is legal? You gotta be kidding me!

NIce time to bring up a non issue. Law abiding citizens do not carry illegal guns nor illegal clips. Hey Timmy boy, instead of picking on law abiding citizens, why don’t you and your band of merry men go pick up a few gang bangers that are carrying illegally?

I don’t see why the everyday joe needs to have a high-capacity gun clip/magazine either. And the NRA’s justification for trying to keep the law from passing is stupid. “Protection from armed mobs”? Really? How often does that happen on a daily basis?

Anyone remember the riots in CA not that long ago or Katrina? I don’t see why laws should ban law abiding citizens in good mental health from owning weapons that deviate from some arbitrary norm. Why is ten rounds ok but 11, 15 or 30 not ok? Do you think criminals will suddenly turn in all their high cap mags? Police will still be out gunned. Why not focus on real issues like making a mental health screening required for a background check? The criminal with a full auto AK and a banana clip isn’t going to care at all about your feel good ban. The “I don’t understand why you need it” argument is illogical, you don’t ban things just because there isn’t an obvious utility, you ban them because they aren’t capable of being handled responsibly by the general public. The general public is not the issue though, so what good is the ban? We ban explosives and machine guns because it takes far greater knowledge to prevent injuring those around you, not the case with high cap mags. Can we just this once try to tackle the issue logically?

He’s right–no one should ever “out-gun” the police, and no civilian needs that many bullets. For those idiots crying “no gun control” (which I typically agree with), if you need that many shots to hit something with a HAND GUN, your aim sucks anyway, and you shouldn’t be holding a firearm. This law gives the police another thing to arrest gang members for. I’m all for it.

You are wrong. Citizens need to have military arms in order form the militia as defined in the 2nd Amendment. If the government does not submit to the will of the People, we have no choice but to seek out 2nd Amendment remedies. Those who oppose Freedom should beware.

No reason except to demonstrate that I remain a CITIZEN and that we collectively allow our government to exist to serve us and not the other way around. Which is the entire purpose of ensuring the individual right to gun ownership, not to dissolve the union, but to protect it. The USA is all of us, the people, not the government and the military. If all the power is in their hands, not ours… things go down hill fast. Why do you think that right before dictators seize power they round up all the weapons? It’s happened over and over again throughout history. You don’t have to own a gun to be free, but you have to be free to own one to be truly free.

Right, Mark! This is why Obama, Dayton, and all the rest of the Democrat socialist traitors want to seize your guns! The population cannot be enslaved until we are disarmed. We have to give Chief Dolan a little bit of a break, though; the orders are coming from a lot higher up the chain!

Well, I am against guns but for knives. The idea that guns will somehow magically made the citizenry more responsible is ludicris. Having gun-acrocy where people are forced to carry guns, like the NRA is proposing is based purely on theory. It may work therefore we must try it. I would rather not and if fact would probably stick a knife in someone who tried to force me to carry a gun. Don’t try it. Nuff said.

“it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government” that is why they have a second amendment, and before people jump on my case I come a very liberal back ground and am against most GOP stances. However people will always kill people and no matter what we do and no matter the statistics or what MIchael Moore says it will always happen changing laws won’t prevent anything it is simply political posturing. Not to mention if a criminal really wants an illegal gun they will probably find a way to get their hands on it. Ultimately people need to have a right to defend themselves from criminals and their Government if the situation should ever call for it

Yeah sorry Patriot my liberal sentiments run deep but still I would consider myself a Doomer things are getting bad no matter what end of the political spectrum you are on and I believe firmly in being prepared because ultimately it won’t be my vote that saves me or put food on the table.

If it takes you more than a small handful of shots to defend yourself, you shouldn’t be using a gun for self-defense. You are missing too often, either because you are a poor shot or because you’re a poor judge of when to take a shot, and you are a bigger danger to bystanders and yourself than you are to the person you are shooting at.
Real gunfights are not like they are in the movies. You are not a character in a John Woo film.

The Second Amendment is to protect us common citizens from our government. Any police Chief that is in favor of restrictions for law abiding citizens is no better than the NAZI SS and should not be trusted.

This bill is pointless. 30 round clips have been on the market for decades, they’re already out there in abundance. Passing a law isn’t going to make them disappear. Few if any shooting spree incidents have involved them anyways. Besides, we already know who most of the violent criminals are, let’s just quit letting them go.

I use high capacity magazines every day when I go out to my private range. You see, I am disabled and it makes it a heck of a lot easier for me to carry one 40 round magazine for my 22 out to the range than 4 ten round magazines. But I guess that doesn’t matter to those who just want to ban all guns – which is the hidden agenda of people like this police chief and those looking to ban these mags.